INTRO:
Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world.
These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.
I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.
This week we’re doing something a bit different and looking into a folklore legend, rather than a physical entity - yes, we’re looking at the terrifying myth of Bloody Mary from not only English folklore, but also US and European folklore!
Just as a pre-warning to this whole episode, if you’re freaked out by ghost stories - I would say maybe give this one a miss? Or skip the first 5 minutes - it freaked me out whilst recording and researching this to be honest. And my BIG recommendation, just in case you were getting ready whilst listening to this, I would advise not looking into any mirrors for the running time - just in case I accidentally do something and I refuse to take responsibility for that, you would be the dumb one here. I warned you!
DESCRIPTION:
Now, most people around my age, at least, have heard of this horrible game that you can play on each other at sleepovers. Bloody Mary is a figure, the monster in this case, that appears in a mirror as a ghostly spirit when you chant her name. It’s debated as to what this monster looks like, as her appearance and character is based on two different historical figures, depending on where you are from. However, there are reports that she is covered in blood, demonic looking with blacked-out eyes and just generally looking like she belongs in a Japanese horror movie. She can either be completely chill, or she can do some horrible things to you.
So how do you summon this ghoulish demon lady? Pre-warning now, if you would rather not hear this bit, just if you’re a bit spooked by these things, skip to about a minute in the podcast.
The best way - weird to say the best way to summon her, but you know what I mean. You would preferably go into a bathroom and look into the mirror with the lights off, with the room completely black, and then say ‘Bloody Mary’ thirteen times. As you chant, your voice should get louder and louder into a near scream. While you are chanting you should be spinning around, and taking a glimpse in the mirror at each pass. At the thirteenth mention, she should appear. Then she’ll scratch your face off and kill you. Simple. Why you would want to do this, I do not know. Don’t blame me for the consequences if you decide to do this - You were warned, I’m not taking any responsibility if you tweet me, completely faceless in a week with legal papers - I ain’t signing anything.
Other consequences of this are that the mirror or taps drip with blood, the victim is pulled through the mirror, the victim is driven mad, the victim is haunted for the rest of their life, the victim’s hair turns white or they’ll just disappear forever.
The ritual has to be 100% correct or she will not appear - some of the research I did shows that you should have a single candle illuminating the bathroom, one is that you need one on each side of the mirror. Another says that the victim needs to be a volunteer, or that they are selected by others to summon her and lastly and most frequently, dependent on the variation of Bloody Mary you call, you would need to say her name a varying amount of times. I guess if you wanted to do it, you would just say it til something turns up I suppose.
Speaking of variations, there are a million variations of this monster, such as Bloody Mary, Bloody Bones, Hell Mary, Mary Worth, Black Agnes, Mary Lou, Sally etc. Just a whole bunch of middle aged white lady names basically - but all do the same thing really. I believe that Bloody Mary, Black Agnes and Hell Mary are more UK based, whilst Mary Worth, Mary Lou and Sally are more US based. Most of these rituals are summoned using the Bloody Mary chant, I believe in Bloody Mary, or I killed your baby, Bloody Mary - do with that what you will.
ORIGIN:
This folklore legend has been traced back to the 1970’s, but there is a belief that it’s been going on for much much longer than this.
The origin of this myth came from at least the 1800’s where women were encouraged to do a similar ritual to show them their future husbands, because obviously that’s all women would want to see. I would much rather see a very large piece of chocolate cake and a litre cup of tea - but whatever floats your boat love. This ritual would include walking up a flight of stairs backwards, whilst holding a candle and a hand mirror in a dark house. There was a chance they would see their future husband, but there was also a chance that they would see a skull appear. This meant that the woman was destined to die before she could marry. This would scare the daylights out of the women involved, as that meant that their use in this world of industrially emerging England, was pretty much nil. Over the years, this developed into the Bloody Mary ritual and has actually got a few HA mirroring folklore tales in the Eastern world too, with the Hanako-san in Japan for example - which we’ll do another podcast on, because it’s scarier and lots of info, you know the drill by now, surely.
There’s no etymology this week - because duh, her name means what it means. However, there’s a lot of history behind the women that this figure is based on.
The first one is that of the actual Bloody Mary, or Mary Tudor, 1st of England. She was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon and King Henry VIII, yes that Henry. Catherine of Aragon raised Mary to be fiercely Catholic, in opposition to her father’s new found Protestant religion, and following the death of Henry and her younger brother, Edward VII, she was next in line to the English throne, before her younger sister, Elizabeth. Bear in mind this is around 1553.
She had struggled immensely growing up with probably what we’d call endometriosis now, but horrific menstrual pains basically. She also had many phantom pregnancies with her husband Philip of Spain, which is pretty horrific too. During this time, she switched England back to a Catholic country, and had hundreds of Protestants murdered for the sake of being Protestant - which gave her her infamous name. She actually ended up dying of suspected ovarian cancer, and is why her myth in the mirror is linked to killing her baby, as it’s all she ever wanted. After her death, Elizabeth 1st of England, daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII, took the throne and England entered possibly the most powerful age that we had historically until Queen Victoria in 1837.
The other most well known woman that this myth is associated with is Elizabeth Bathory. You might recognise this woman for being an inspiration for literally every blood based myth monster we will ever cover. She’s apparently one of the main inspirations behind Dracula, so there’s that too. Elizabeth was one of the most prolific serial killers in history, and is the most prolific female serial killer in history, with a suspected body count of over 200 women. She was a countess from Hungary, living in a lavish castle - but believed the blood of virgins would keep her youthful - therefore, she summoned numerous girls from local villages to have them tortured, bled and killed for her to bathe in to retain her looks and youth. However, this last bit was never proved - so it is also a folklore tale in itself.
She was caught in 1610, and was imprisoned in a castle in Slovakia until her death in 1614. She had horrific epilepsy due to her parents inbreeding, and some believe that she was actually trying to figure out a cure for this through the blood - then realised she actually quite enjoyed it. She’s very often linked to satanism and witchcraft - which is why she’s been associated with this myth.
Sometimes, this is modernised to be a woman who died in a car-crash or died in childbirth and wants her baby back, but these two are the most significant links to who this apparition claims to be.
So why do kids still try to summon Bloody Mary when they know the possible consequences of it? There’s actually a really cool couple of theories behind this. Apparently, the ages between 9 and 12 are labeled “the Robinson age” by psychologists. This is the period when children need to satisfy their craving for excitement by participating in ritual games and playing in the dark. They are in some way looking for a safe way to be in danger, if that makes sense - trying things in a safe space.
Another one from folklorist Alan Dundes, suggests that the story is an initiation ritual into womanhood. He has said that the Bloody Mary legend revolves around blood suddenly appearing, and that the ritual typically takes place in a bathroom with girls who are right on the edge of puberty. So it can link quite nicely onto menstruation and the start of periods, how fun. What a lovely, lovely thought.
Lastly, there have been studies into how our brains work with mirrors. Apparently if you stare at a mirror in a dimly-lit room for a while, you can hallucinate. Your facial features will look like they’re melting, you can see animal and ghostly faces too. It’s called the ‘strange-face illusion’ and basically the brain gets so confused that it starts to doubt it’s own facial recognition system. Think of it like you’ve accidentally smudged your iPhone camera before facial recognition - that’s what your brain is trying to interpret. But basically, we are pre-programmed to get frightened when we do this for too long, so realistically, just the idea of Bloody Mary whilst looking in a mirror can make you see her, but it’s just your brain getting scrambled.
CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:
Onto cultural significance - for art, there is a wonderful painting from the 20th century of a woman doing the ‘show me my future hubby’ trick. It’s actually taken from a Halloween greetings card, and I really love it. I’ll post it on twitter as there is no artist or name attached to this piece.
I know what all the adults listening to this are thinking too, yes - the drink Bloody Mary - it’s not based on the folklore tale, but the Queen. However, we’ll work with it. It’s apparently a banging hangover cure, even though it has vodka in it. The colour of the tomato juice makes it look gross, and is served with a stalk of celery.
For movies, we have a few! She’s appeared in Urban Legend, Paranormal Activity 3, Bloody Mary, Dead Mary and The Legend of Bloody Mary. Also the myth goes on in other forms in films like Candyman, Constantine and Haunted Mansion for example, where there are scary figures summoned from or sealed within mirrors. There are a few TV shows too actually, she was famously in X-files, a massive character in the first season of Supernatural, Charmed, Ghost Whisperers and The Haunting Hour. Again, a similar summoning ritual is that of the ‘Piggy Piggy’ in American Horror Story - I believe it’s the first season, Murder House.
For video games, she appears in Terrordrome 2, Terranigma and Identity V. But my most favourite, is Telltale Games’ The Wolf Among Us, which has Bloody Mary as one of the main antagonists towards the end of the game. She’s pretty scary in this, with big pentagrams carved into her and glass sticking out of her at every angle. I spoke about this game in the Jersey Devil episode, and honestly - if you like story based games, go get it. Apparently season 2 is coming, even though Telltale shut down a few years ago.
My book recommendation this week is The First Queen of England: The Myth of "Bloody Mary" by Linda Porter. This is a really cool book if you’re into history like me, and you can read all about the Queen that now has the bloodiest history in England. It goes into the myth of Bloody Mary and also her as a person, so it’s a really good read! If you fancy more of a scare, give the Woman in Black a read, that’s slightly related! Or better still, go see it in a theatre. I managed to watch it and I am the biggest scaredy cat going. I did cry though, just saying.
DO I THINK THEY EXISTED?
Now it’s time for, do I think they existed?
Now, I’m biased on this one because this is something that I grew up very much believing in. Before I researched this episode, I would have full on said that yes, I believe this one exists and I absolutely refuse to say this in the mirror to find out.
However, following what I learnt about the brain in the last bit of the podcast - it really does make sense to me. And I love the idea that creepypasta exists, and scary videos on Youtube so that kids can get a bit of adrenaline in a safe environment, as long as that content is explored in a safe way - not done as a prank, or mentally vulnerable kids - which I’ll be honest, happened to me, and then gave me a horrific fear of anything scary throughout my whole life. I begrudge the way I was introduced to horror, and I wish I could re-do that part of my life so I could be safely shown things that still give me an endorphin rush now, but also cause me to have nightmares for 4 months.
Now, the odds are that most people who do these rituals will not see anything like Bloody Mary, but only due to their own cowardice. But you might see your face starting to drip or some weird hallucination. So remember, while this has kind of proven that this mirror trick doesn’t happen, the research into it did show that brains are bloody weird, and we do naturally scare ourselves.
I can tell you that after finishing writing and recording this episode, I got significantly freaked out and refused to look in mirrors for the rest of the day.
OUTRO:
I’ve been looking forward to this one massively, as I grew up with this folktale from my childhood. It was always something I feared and to this day, I have never said Bloody Mary in front of a mirror, just out of pure fear of something terrible happening. But this was a really fun one to research the meaning behind it, even though I learnt about Queen Mary during primary school.
Next week we’re popping back over to Greece to look at the fearsome sea sisters, Scylla and Charybdis from Greek mythology. Come get stuck between a rock and a hard place with me next Thursday.
For now, thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk.
So come join the fun and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.
But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.